27+ Official Letter Examples – PDF, DOC

Having the skill in writing, be it for creative or professional purpose, is very essential. Not only is it useful when you want to enter the corporate world, even in the academe it is a very useful and advantageous skill to have. Generally, wherever you go, having a decent or strong writing skills can work to your advantage; since it is another form of communicating, producing well-written and well-thought-out letters and other documents will make you more of an asset in any career you decide to pursue.

As mentioned, having strong communication skills is an asset you should invest in. However, you need to remember that this does not only mean verbal communication, it also means that you have to invest your time to improve your writing skills. Your writing skills will help you convey your message clearly and help you establish a professional relationship with your recipient. You may also see email cover letter examples.

Not only that, it can also help you make an impression that you know what you are doing. In addition, good writing skills will also be useful when making general reports, writing applications and press releases. Lastly, it will also help you reach a larger audience than through face-to-face or telephone conversations.

Now that you have an idea on the importance of good writing skills, you already have an idea how writing can affect your professional life. Writing a job application letter, memos, general reports, and so on will be common once you enter that certain age in your life. However, you should not be intimidated by that; there is no point in writing verbose documents when you don’t know the foundation of the type of document you are writing.

Thus, this letter will help you understand the significance of official letters as well as how to write it effectively.

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Types of Official Letters

In a way, official letters can be classified as formal letters. These letters go beyond the friendly correspondence; these letters usually perform or are used to communicate messages with a formal or professional nature.

Aside from that, these letters also follow a strict format or structure, there is a standard on how to write these letters since they are usually used for business or professional purposes. In order to know how to write an official letter, you must first be able to differentiate the different type of official letters.

Listed below are some of the common types of formal or official letters:

1. Business Letters

These letters are usually developed and used in the professional field. Business letters, as the name would suggest, are commonly used to convey business-related messages. Business letters follow a certain structure that separates it from personal letters; usually it is headed with a greeting and end with the signature of the issuer, who usually holds a relevant position within a company. These letters are commonly used in business-to-business transactions and company-wide communication.

2. Order Letters

Order letters are commonly made by consumers and are sent to the suppliers. It is also called as the Purchase Order or PO. These formal letters are made in order to place an order of certain products. It is sent with the purpose of placing an order for a certain amount of products from the supplier, so generally is has the intention of purchasing said products.

Order letters contain aspects such as the quantity of product required, name of the product to be purchased, product model, color, size (if applicable,) price expected to pay for the product, and the payment mode/method.

3. Sales Letters

These letters are are made with the purpose of encouraging consumers of purchasing certain advertised products or services.

These professional letters basically use persuasive statements in order to attract the attention of the prospective buyer and convince them to purchase the product/s or service/s. Sales letters must be able to appeal to the reader/consumer, clearly and perfectly paint a picture of the product or service through convincing descriptions, and effortlessly infuse a call-to-action along with the correct contact information where they can purchase the advertised product or service.

4. Claim Letters

Claim letters, also referred to as complaint letters, are sent by unsatisfied customers to file a formal complaint regarding a product or service of a certain business entity. Although these letters are used to air out disappointment and complaints, it is still a professional letter, therefore, it should be written with respect to the other party.

These letters should definitely include the following elements: General information of the issuer (name, age, address, among others), information on the procurement of the product or service (date of procurement, establishment in which it was procured, invoices and purchase receipts, etc.), information about the failure of the product or service, and lastly, the possible solution that is expected to be given to the problem. You may also like application letter examples.

5. Letters of Recommendation

You often hear about these letters when used to apply for a promotion or when someone resigns from the company aiming to land a job with a higher expected salary.

These letters are generally written to attest to the quality of work, character, work ethic, etc., of certain individual. Letters or recommendations are very useful when someone wants to apply for a higher position, a new job, a bank loan, a scholarship, a funding grant, and so on. In this sense, these letters are commonly written by people with knowledge of one’s well-being and/or capacity such as tutors, teachers, and former bosses.

6. Resignation Letters

Resignation letters are submitted with the intention of exiting a company and terminating an employee’s employment in the company. It contains the reason why the employee decided to resign from the company along with the exact date of the effectivity of his/her resignation. It also contains additional information such as his/her expression of gratitude to the company and his/her willingness or the opposite to offer a hand during the transition process.

Resignation letters are meant to display professionalism and courtesy until his/her last day of employment in the company.

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7. Letters of Receipt

This means that this letter is made as form of receipt, to make true of the letter that they have been written. This letter can be also used to verify that the letter they have sent were in fact received by the intended recipient. However, this is not a guarantee that what has been written were read. You may also see formal letters examples for students.

8. Dismissal Letters

Dismissal letters are simple resignation letters but are written by the employer instead of the employee. These letters are made to let an employee know that the company has decided to terminate his/her employment in the company. Letters of dismissal include the date on which the employee is expected to stop working for the company and the reason for the dismissal.

9. Authorization Letters

These letters are generally used to give authority to another person to carry out an act on behalf of the person writing the letter.

As the name would imply, authorization letters give the person indicated in the letter to do certain activities that require verification, for example carrying out bank transactions and carrying out other official transactions; however, these should be made by the legitimate owner or authority. These letters are generally made when the person making the letter cannot or is not willing to go to an appointment, a meeting, among other situations.

10. Letters of Permission

As the name would suggest, letters of permission generally asks for permission from a person of authority. There are generally two types of this letter. The first one emits an employee to his boss in order for the latter to give the employee the permission to skip work for one or more days. This type of permission letter contains the reason why you are planning to miss work and the number of days you are expected to miss. You may also see formal writing examples.

The second type is known as a permit letter that is issued by an employer to his employee when he has accepted his application to leave or be absent from the office for a certain period of time. This letter includes recognition by the boss and the date of departure and return of the employee. You may also like business formal letter examples.

11. Application Letters

When an individual wishes to opt for a position within an institution, he/she sends a simple application letter. The application letter conveys the individual’s interest in the position along with his/her qualifications that makes him/her a viable candidate. It is a very essential document that an individual has to submit in order to be considered as a candidate for a position.

An application can be used in different situations and context: to apply for admission within a university, a post in an internship, a job, a business proposal, and so on.

12. Acceptance Letters

Letters that relay acceptance to whatever the initial letter has asked for are called acceptance letters. These letters state the favorable decision the authorizing body has in response to the initial letter.

For example, when you apply for a job you send an application letter to your potential employer, and in response, the employer can send an acceptance letter stating he/she has received your application and to invite you for an interview or to officially welcome you to the company. These letters include the reason you have been accepted, the date you are expected to be an active member of the institution, the position you will serve, and the length of time you will remain in the organization.

13. Transfer Letters

Transfer letters are commonly used to inform an employee of the decision of the management to have him/her transfer and carry out his/her responsibilities as an employee of the company in another location or branch. The letter states why there was a decision to have him/her transferred, the new location of office, the effectivity of the decision, and the duration or time period of the effectivity of the decision.

These letters can also be just a response to the request of an employee to transfer locations, and to help make things more official.

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Parts of an Official Letter

Before you go on and write official letters for you or for the company you work for, you must be able to easily identify the parts you need to include in those letters.

Listed below are the parts that are essential in an official letter:

Return address – the name, address, and contact information of the sender

Date of the letter – when the letter was made

Inside address – the name, address, and contact information of the recipient

Formal greeting – most commonly used greeting for letters is “Dear” along with the title of the recipient, for example: “Dear sir or madam” or “Dear Mr., Ms., Mrs.”

Body of the letter – this is where the sender states and discusses the message of the letter clearly

Complimentary close – commonly used close for formal letter are “Sincerely,” “Respectfully,” and “Cordially”

Signature of sender

Printed name of sender

Importance of Business Writing Skills

Regardless of the field, job and expertise, the global workplace forces individuals to improve communication skills. You have to be a great communicator to be able to compete and thrive in the industry.

As mentioned, one of the best ways of communicating in the corporate world is through letters. You have to be able to clearly and cohesively write letters conveying your purpose. But aside from that, what are the other significant reasons why you need to be able to know how to write business or professional letters. Here are some reasons why business writing skills are very important:

1. Ensures effective business communication

Business-to-business communication is very common since it helps companies easily connect with partners and stakeholders, and establish a positive relationship with them. Having good business writing skills will enable you to write official letters specifically tailored to your recipient and purpose. As it should, your business writing skills will help you write in a proficient, comprehensive, and informative way.

2. It makes the difference between employees

Just like how an academic paper filled with grammatical errors and typos will never make a good impression, being an employee who is not capable of constructing cohesive and comprehensive documents will result in a bad performance rating or, worse, job termination. You have to continuously practice your writing skills in order to improve so that you can stand out from all the other employees. You may also see business proposal letter examples.

Senior management are generally in favor of employees who are capable of crafting good quality documentation.

3. Demonstrates intelligence

Regardless of how your job doesn’t require a lot of simple writing, how you come off whenever you do matters. This means that when you are able to create and write a cohesive, comprehensive, direct to the point, and informative document, it can be interpreted as you having enough intelligence to know better.

Remember that as minor as a few grammatical or punctual errors can be easily remembered by people reading your work. And people tend to think that those who don’t write well are less intelligent than those who do. However, a few minutes proofreading your work can change the result drastically and it can help you present your skills better. You may also like business proposal cover letter examples.

4. Exhibits credibility

People generally perceive individuals with advanced writing skills as more reliable and trustworthy. It is quite easy to prove since sending a document with quite a few odd abbreviations and misspelled words can be interpreted as the sender being not competent and neglects proofreading or is simply unintelligent. You may also check out offer letter examples.

Sending in a clean and sleek document will help you become more credible in the workplace and makes you dependable leading to being assigned with more responsibility, and helping you become the right candidate for promotion.

5. Makes a person become more influential

If you develop your writing skills you will be rewarded with an improved persuasion skills. Those skills will help you better influence others to achieve your goals. For example, if you are tasked to make taglines and calls-to-action for your organization, you need to be able to encourage readers to take the action you have indicated. As it should, your documents must be able to communicate your ideas convincingly and effectively.

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6. Conveys courtesy

As you know, when you start a business correspondence with anyone, it must exude of politeness and professionalism. Therefore, it should mirror the attention and manner that is shown in face-to-face interaction. The simple business letters you make must be respectful and offer courtesy regardless of the purpose. You should always bear in mind that the tone, clarity, language, and writing etiquette will be your way of conveying courtesy in your letter.

7. Helps keeps record of correspondence

The main reason why writing is still a prevalent method of communication despite of the continuous technological advancement is because it can be easily kept and recorded. That is also why the corporate world still prefers using writing and sending business letters since it can be preserved for a long time, and since it is recorded, it can be easily tracked when needed. You may also see verification letter samples.

8. Boosts professional confidence

There is a bigger purpose as to why you have decided to write a business letter, be it to apply for a job or to attract investors or partners.

Therefore, your documents aim to impress your receiver. When you have successfully achieved the purpose or goal of your previous document, you become confident on when crafting your next one. In return, your documents can also help convey your professional confidence that will surely impress your readers. You may also like cover letter examples.

9. Promotes oneself and career

If you have a strong communication and writing skills, your colleagues will rely on you to make presentations, reports, and other documents. Not only will that mean that you are a dependable employee, that also means you are good at what you do and you continuous improve your skills. Your boss/bosses may even hear about it and may give you chance to try prove yourself worthy of a promotion. You may also check out proposal letter examples.

10. Builds a solid Web presence

If your company has a web page and you are tasked to make its content, that means you are in charge of presenting your company to the market. And that can really affect how the market may perceive your company and your products/services. If you have good communication and writing skills, you can clearly make the mission and vision of your company be known to the public make a solid Web presence. You might be interested in manager resignation letter examples.

Remember that the employee who can present the business in the best light and convince people to buy products or services is an irreplaceable employee.

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Format Used in Official Letters

1. Full-Block Style

In this format, the primary contents of the letter such as the return address, date, inside address, salutation, closing, the signature along with the name of the sender, and all the beginning of each paragraph are typed out flushed left. For example:

2. Modified Block Style

In this format the return address, date, the closing and the signature along with the name of the sender and his/her title are all flushed to the right. The inside address, salutation, and all the beginning of each paragraph remains flushed to the left. For example:

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Tips in Writing an Effective Official Letter

Although you may already have your own style or techniques in making official letters by now, additional tips to help you improve will not hurt. Thus, here are some useful tips in writing an effective official letter:

Be accurate.

State the correct name and title of the recipient.

Be prompt and concise.

Be clear and complete.

Always be professional.

Practice being organized and follow correct structure.

Use an active voice.

Proofread your output religiously.

We hope that you have learned something about official letters with this guide, and that you may find all the given examples useful.